[Rant] The Unfair World We Live In...

[Barx]

WARNING - This post is likely to be long!

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Why is that the world is unfair to honest people, yet scumbags get away with everything?

8am Friday morning and the wife sets off for school with the kids as usual. The school is 5 miles away, so they are in the car. a couple of minutes later she is sat at a red light and someone decides to bump the back of the car. Lucky, no-one was hurt. They had just pulled out a junction near the lights and so no great speed was involved. She said that the guy was relatively pleasant and offered his apology and name and address, etc and accepted full responsibility. No witnesses could be had as every drove off. I was starting work late that day so she phoned me to nip up and help out. I take a look at car and said to chap that it looked like it was just the bumper but will get it checked out to make sure. He seemed more bothered about his (well actually it turns out, his dads') car as bonnet is deformed and grill / bumper cracked. So, details have been exchanged and plan of action sorted. The wife asks me if I can drive them up to school and instantly this guys attitude changes, saying 'Why does he need to drive you to school, you ain't got whiplash or owt'. To which she replied that she wanted me to drive as she was shaken. Left it at that and drove off.

Monday - gets a estimate of works from a garage, bumper and support bar, plus there was a an un-noticed dent in the tailgate. All in all, to get it done properly at this garage, would be lucking at over £1200. The wife phone the guy and told him, he went nuts. eff'ing and blinding, he can't afford that and telling the wife it's people like her that make insurance prices high. Basically now saying he hasn't damages our car at all and again more interested in getting his own sorted. So wife says to him, well can we have your insurance details then. 'No, can you f**k' and hangs up.

As you can imagine, wife is in tears (i'm at work btw) and now doesn't know what to do. After speaking to me and her father she rings the police to inform them that this guy is being a prat and refuses to give insurance details. They don't want to know and say, phone your insurance, they will sort it out.

Now our car ain't no flash new model, it's a 2001 Zafira and by now i'm worried that going through insurance will deffo write it off. We make a few enquiries to find out my thoughts were true, it's worth about £1000 tops. So would be written off. Wife makes a few more enquiries with various companies and we are now stuck. She is too scares of this guy and doesn't want us to contact him, as he is fairly local and has our address she fears he will cause trouble. It turns out that even though this is no fault of ours AND we have protected no claims, reporting this to the insurance WILL increase our premiums as we are now statistically more prone to accidents WTF! Also, if the car gets written off, alot of insurers now won't let you buy it back as they want old cars off the road. So we will be stuck buying a cheap car not knowing how it will be. Our car is very reliable and has served us well for the 6 years we have had it.

I ring round wreckers and find out that i will be looking at a couple of hundred quid for the bits plus no-one locally has a bumper the right colour so probably another £100 to get one sprayed.

So, things are like this. Someone has bumped our car, accepts that he hit us, but refuses to admit that he made the damage, has been arrogant and threating to the wife and now she feels intimidated and anxious so we cannot contact him. If we go through insurance, 1) it will increase our premiums for the next 4-5 years and once he gets the claim through is likely to still cause trouble. So it's looking like for no fault of our own, that I will have to shell out probably best part of £300 to fix my car myself. Money I haven't really got. So, I think it's going to be a matter of replacing the support bar for safety reasons doing the cosmetic stuff as and when...

And That my friends is UNFAIR!

p.s. I know there are alot of people out there in alot worse situations than me, and things could have been alot worse with people injured etc.

p.p.s research has shown that he is chums with all the local trouble causers and the family are well known as thieves :red card

[END RANT]

 

[Technician]

If, at the time of the accident, insurance details were not exchanged,

some might say it is a "drive-off" and he left the scene of an accident.

It looks as though he was uninsured.

 

[Sidewinder]

Barx,

Stuff him, I'm with Technician, I'd try to put a spin on it that it was a drive off somehow & get the Police involved.

Get him to pay out, end of.

If HE is uninsured, then, it the likes of HIM tat are pushing premiums up!

Oh, and a BER is not a "write off" as it is a no fault claim, you can demand that the insurance company repair the vehicle at the cost of his insurance, and you can claim many other things back from him.

If he gets stroppy, or you get issues, then worry about it then, and just get the Police involved.

I suspect he is an uninsured driver, thus a danger to everyone.

 

[ProDave]

1: ALWAYS get the police to attend an accident, no matter how minor. They will check the details of both drivers and ensure cars were insured, taxed and MOT'd, and will probably breathalyse both drivers. So any offences will be dealt with.

2: IF the insurance decide to write it off, make it clear you want to buy back the salvage.  For something like that, you could repair it a lot cheaper if you are prepared to accept it would not be cosmetically perfect.  I did this once and bought the whole car back for £50.  To put it back on the road it would have to be taken to a VOSA station (not just any old MOT station) to satisfy them it was roadworthy.

3: your own insurance should sort out the claim on the third party.

 

[betty swollocks]

A few years ago I received a letter from a solicitor asking for my insurance details concerning a drive away incident whereby I was seen to hit a parked car and drove away, my details (name and number from van, no reg) where passed onto the car owner. Now the town this occurred in i had never heard of never mind been to, it was around 200 miles away midweek and my diary told me I was 5 miles from home on this day replacing a consumer unit, certs to prove it.

First of all I rang local plod who didn't want to know except to tell me it was an offence to withhold the information requested, apparently it wasn't upto me to make the decision if the claim was fraudulent or not, I rang my insurance who told me the same, took details and told me they would look into it, a month later I received a court summons for damages from this guy, rang insurance who told me there was nothing they could do even though they had satisfied themselves the whole claim was fraudulent however they paid this guy off @£1100 to avoid me going to court. Now I never paid an excess and my premiums never went up and I kept my no claims discount and requested and received a letter to say that this claim made against me had been done fraudulently and at no point was I involved. I rang local plod to basically vent off at their lack of Internet and was told ' what's your problem, it got sorted and you are not out of pocket are you,' if he had been closer I would have called round to see who the guy was and had a wee chat with him!

 

[apprentice87]

HI There, INSTANT written complaint to the police.... It is a criminal offence not to stop after an accident and give your details to ANYONE that requires them. If nobody there, it is a CRIMINAL offence not to go to the police and report it. So first off, the police take an oath to uphold the law, so complaint to them will sort that.

Secondly, never mind the "date protection act" and all that, so far as i know, if you have the car registration, the police and or DVLA, have to tell you the owners name and address so you can persue them privately.

Go to ASKMID, and enter the car reg, and see if he has insurance.... If not, report it....!!!!!

john....

 

[Apache]

John speaks a lot of sense. Find out if he's insured.

If he is pass it on to your insurance company. That's what they are there for.

If not then contact him and try him for the £300 to do the job without involving the insurance.

If still no joy PM me his address and I can accidentally mislabel some pathological specimens.............

 

[Mr Smith]

mr barx

mr smith is somewhat peeved at members of the public upsetting our forumites

mr smith will happily attend to this person

and resolve his breathing problem for him

mr smith

 

[husky2013]

Pass his details over to your insurance company, they should be the ones to contact him and relevant parties to complete claim!

Any1 hitting another vehicle from behind 99% of the time is considered at fault and insurance companies know this, they are pain in arses when it comes to it tho!

Streety got hit from behind in oct by a female driving a mini ( she decided she wanted a mini adventure) and approaching a roundabout, streety was stationary and she carried on without attempting to stop and hit him up the rear end of the car!

we just simply passed her contact details over to our insurance company whom obv found out who she was insured with and dealt with it all!

Also technically  he has left the scene of an accident  so this is also an offence,  go down to the local  police station instead of ringing them and demand that you speak to the superintendant of traffic police at your local stn,  tell them what has gone on and that how this other bloke has displayed threatening behavious towards your wife, and also just for that  i would also make a point of visiting your local hospital with your lady and recording a hospital visit  for any future aggravations that may arise! remember whiplash  doesnt always show up immediately  it can be weeks before you see any signs of injury!

 

[Technician]

Following on from Sidewinder,  NOT exchanging insurance details

is an offence under the Road Traffic Act.  Even if you ARE insured,

if you are tardy in so doing, you could find yourself on the wrong end

of a dirty stick.

 

[Andy™]

Go to ASKMID, and enter the car reg, and see if he has insurance.... If not, report it....!!!!!

even that may not be good enough - it was his dads car, so his dad may be insured, but he may not be

 

[batty]

It probably would have been better to get the police out that way he wouldn't be able to get  out of dealing with this. Personally I think your wife is probably due some claim to whiplash. When my daughter had an accident soon after she started driving the polish couple got 7k off the insurance and they were only doing about 25 mph.

 

[sellers]

The sad and all too common fact in this, is that the police don't give one about a genuine crime/police matter.

This happens too often.  Also I've never understood the problem with being hit by an uninsured driver and claiming on your own insurance?  Surely if they are uninsured you can sue them direct for damages?

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Sorry to hear this Barx....

Did you get any photo's at the scene of the accident???

That can clear up a lot of confusion about who did what and what damage occoured..

opcorn

 

[Barx]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Here is a quite ho down to hopefully reply to most. No photo;s of scene unfortunately as 1) he seemed ok and I was naive 2) inexperience got the better of me. The annoying thing is I was thinking to myself on the way to the scene 'get some photo's'. I got there, saw the wife rather upset and the though disappeared  :Blushing .

The things that are holding us back from dealing with insurance are the experiences had by family members. The wife's brother to be more precise. He has had 2 accidents in the close past. One, he was reared by a woman and she accepted full responsibility, it all went through her insurance but he did the duty thing and 'just let his insurance know it had happened' and although she paid for everything, his insurance instantly increase his premiums £200 and it effected this years too by a similar amount. On a second occasion he was side impacted and the car was deemed a total loss (write off) even though it just needed a new door and a little body work on the side panel. He tried to buy it back as it was still very drivable and they told him he couldn't. So, this experience alone makes me weary. I really don't know what to do now, I had it settled in my mind that I was just gong to sort it myself, but I don't know. We have the guys name, address, reg and mobile number. I checked MID other day and it shows that someone is insured, also checked dvla for tax. As much as I would like to contact him or go round, the wife got rather hysterical when I tried to reason with her on the option, she is adamant that I don't do it. I'm kinda fighting 2 opponents.

Thanks again

 

[ProDave]

You seemed to indicate the damage to your car was quite minor. Possibly just cosmetic, but a "proper" repair would make it a write off.

How about taking it to your local friendly MOT station, and ask him to have a quick look to see if it would still be roadworthy and pass an MOT in it's present condition.

If it would, then how about approaching the other driver and suggesting a cash settlement to cover the reduction in value of the car as a result of the damage.

If it's only worth £1000 it must be an old car, so I would probably just accept the dents and carry on using it as it is, and accept the fact it will be worth a bit less if you ever decide to sell it (hence why you want some compensation from the other driver for loss of value)

 

[Apache]

If he thinks you want £1200 to have it fixed, but you can get it done for £300 he should rip your hand off!

I'd try that and see what happens.

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

I had a minor knock in my van last year. A guy pulled out on me, 5mph collision and scraped the corner of my bumper . All done and settled & repaired, all his fault.

However i have many friends in the car repair trade and i was on my way to one when this happened. My friend says, as its me, if you want it done drop it off first thing, well blow the corner in & pick it up on your way home £200 cash.

The insurance dealt with it all, i had a similar rental van dropped off (owned by the insurance group) They had my van 10 days, van rental  @  £197 a day + vat. When i was getting nothing from the repairers i called past, it was only a bit out the way. The whole front was off my van, both wings,bonnet,  headlamps whole front assembly. They reckon there was more damage than first realised. I have had the van from new & not even had a parking knock in it. My friend  who saw it earlier reckoned it probably ended up a £5000 repair claim.

Worst off i get hundreds of calls asking me to make a claim for personal injury. My own broker even phoned to say the guy who had hit me had successfully claimed £3000 injury so why didn't i ? I called him a lier and he hung up.

 

[batty]

That is why we all pay so much for insurance these days and the whiplash claims are the worst thing insurance companies won't fight it they just pay it out and we are all paying for it. I thought the government were going to do something about it it hasn't happened yet though.

 

[sellers]

Insurance companies are their own worst enemy, they complain about wiplash claims but promote you to claim for it when its not your fault.

My brother in law (to be) had a minor accident, got his car sorted.  A year passed and he got a phone call saying there is a wiplash cheque waiting for him if he just under goes a medical.  He told them he was fine, saw the doc and got a cheque for 1500quid, his mrs got one for 2500.

Plain daft.